Posts

News Roundup: A Look at the World’s First Autonomous-Capable Cargo Ship, Apple Creates Buzz With Self-Driving Car News, and More

/0 Comments/in , , , , , ,

Jennifer van der Kleut

Oslo-based company to debut electric, autonomous-capable ship

The company YARA Birkeland out of Oslo, Norway has revealed plans for a zero-emission, remote control-capable and eventually autonomous-capable cargo ship. YARA said the ship will launch in 2019 with the ability to be controlled remotely and deliver cargo unmanned. Within a few years after that, the company said the ship will be capable of operating fully autonomously. The container ship is being built by Kongsberg Gruppen ASA, and many say it will have a huge impact on the maritime industry, which is known for its high amounts of fuel consumption. The container ship will reportedly be used to transport fertilizer. Read more from Bloomberg.

 

Apple’s Tim Cook creates a buzz, offering details of self-driving plans

Apple CEO Tim Cook gave an interview with Bloomberg News last week week, creating quite a buzz as he addressed the company’s work on autonomous car systems. Those are the exact words he used — autonomous systems. Cook made it clear that Apple is no longer working on attempting to build a vehicle, but is instead working on developing the system that would power one. The project has long been called Project Titan internally. Just a couple of months ago, Bloomberg published photos of Lexus SUVs outfitted with Apple’s autonomous technology being tested on San Francisco Bay Area roads. Since Apple veteran Bob Mansfield took over control of Project Titan, engineers have been cut and costs streamlined, but Cook made it clear the project is moving full-speed ahead. Read more from Bloomberg.

 

Bye-bye, Google self-driving bubble car

Google self-driving spin-off company Waymo announced this week it is retiring its famous, signature “bubble” cars. For years the rounded pod cars have been traveling millions of miles around Silicon Valley as the company has been testing and gathering data for its self-driving car system. However, the company has been advancing partnerships with established vehicle manufacturers and says it will now focus on installing its systems into other cars rather than manufacturing any more of the bubble cars. In particular, Waymo’s blog indicates the company is working on outfitting a fleet of 600 Chrysler Pacifica mini-vans. Whereas the “Firefly” bubble-shaped pod car maxes out at a top speed of 25 miles per hour, the mini-vans will be capable of traveling at full speed. Read more from BBC News.

 

Image: Courtesy rendering of YARA Birkeland ship

News Roundup: Volkswagen Unveils ‘Sedric,’ Its New Level 5 Autonomous Car, Truck Drivers Push Back Against Autonomous Trucks, and More

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , ,

Jennifer van der Kleut

A look at some of the most interesting news to come out of the driverless transportation industry this week:

Volkswagen unveils ultra-modern-looking Level 5 autonomous car

No, this isn’t a giant Pokémon on wheels-it’s Volkswagen’s new fully autonomous concept car, named “Sedric” (a mashup of the term “self-driving car”), just unveiled this week. Volkswagen is hailing it as a Level 5 autonomous car, “capable of operating any driving mode in any environmental condition, allowing passengers to sit back and enjoy the ride.” The concept is evident by the car’s interior, designed to look more like a mobile lounge than the interior of a car. The car will be optimized for shared mobility, meaning passengers will have a “universal mobility ID” and be able to hail a Sedric from anywhere with their smartphones. Sedric will automatically recognize and remember each passenger when it arrives, allowing the passengers to talk to them in any language naturally, including with slang. Passengers will also be able to choose whether to look at the world passing by through the windshield, or choose entertainment like a movie or TV while they ride. Read more and see photos from SlashGear.

 

Trucking companies push back against autonomous trucks

The Alliance for Driver Safety and Security recently voiced its opposition to claims that autonomous trucks will soon take over the industry and cost truck drivers their jobs. Representatives say that the “accountability” of human drivers is too important to fully hand over to a machine, and that drivers should not be worried about losing their jobs to technology anytime soon, at least in the next few years. “A change to driverless vehicles will occur gradually-if at all,” the Alliance said recently. The organization represents major trucking companies like J.B. Hunt, Knight Transportation and KLLM Transportation, among others. “Truckers, after all, are not just operators but also cargo monitors and a key point of communication for logistics providers,” they explained. Read more from Supply Chain Dive.

 

Toyota unveils new autonomous concept car

The Toyota Research Institute (TRI) unveiled its new autonomous concept car, called the Toyota Advanced Safety Research Vehicle (TASRV), at the company’s annual Prius Challenge in Sonoma, California recently. The vehicle consists of Toyota’s plug-and-play autonomous system on a Lexus LS 600hL. Toyota representatives say the “flexible” system will be easy to upgrade often as the technology continues to advance. The on-board technology in the TASRV “focuses heavily on machine vision and machine learning and includes an array of layered and overlapping LIDAR, radar and camera sensors that reduce the need to rely on high-definition maps.” Toyota reps said they believe the technology will have invaluable applications throughout the industry as it helps bring driverless technology to areas without high-definition mapping. The car will also be able to share data with and gathered from other cars. Read more from Kelley Blue Book.

California DMV Will Now Include Reports of All Autonomous Vehicle Accidents On Its Website

/1 Comment/in , , ,

Jennifer van der Kleut

It has been said over and over again that autonomous vehicles will reduce the number of traffic accidents each year by as much as 80 to 90 percent, depending on who you ask.

Therefore, it is not surprising that when one of the foremost companies working on driverless car production, Google, has more than 10 accidents involving their driverless test cars in the past year, people are going to want to know what happened.

Earlier this year, when Google’s koala cars got into a few fender-benders - including the first to involve minor injuries to the passengers - the news media flew into an uproar. Reporters and news outlets demanded that California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) should disclose details of the accidents, if for no other reason than the public has a right to know if Google’s test cars are going to share the road with human-driven cars in the Bay Area.

The DMV appears to have heard the call, loud and clear. The department recently created a dedicated page on its website linking to reports of accidents involving autonomous cars.

Nine reports are up on the site this week, spanning October 2014 to August 2015. Of those, eight are linked to a Google car and one is linked to Delphi Automotive. All personal information such as insurance companies and names of passengers are redacted, but details of the accidents and company names are visible.

The report of the Delphi accident, which occurred in October last year, involved one of its Audi test vehicles traveling in the Mountain View/Los Altos area of California’s Bay Area.

The report indicates the test car was waiting for traffic to clear so that it could merge onto a multi-lane road when a Honda attempted a dangerous turn and accidentally came up over the center median, crashing into the Audi test car.

The reports indicate the Audi’s right front bumper was damaged. The driver of the Honda was found to be at fault and given a citation “for making an unsafe turning movement.”

ACCIDENT WITH INJURY

In the only reported autonomous car accident thus far to involve any injuries, a Google Lexus AV was involved in a minor accident with a Tesla Model S on Aug. 20 when it slowed to yield to a pedestrian, the DMV’s report indicates.

The Google test car was traveling down Shoreline Boulevard in Mountain View when it slowed. Meanwhile, the Tesla was changing lanes into the one the Google car was in, and the Tesla rear-ended the Google car at approximately 10 miles per hour, according to the report.

One of the Google employees in the car felt back pain and was taken to the hospital, where he was evaluated and released. The Google car sustained minor damage to its rear bumper. The Tesla car sustained more serious damage and was towed from the scene.

As these reports indicate, one problem that occurs when autonomous cars share the same roads with human-driven cars is that the autonomous car operates almost too safely. Human drivers - even at 10 miles per hour - can be more aggressive and do not anticipate the autonomous car to be so “by-the-book.” Further, it’s probably a safe bet that few human drivers know that current Google test cars have a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour, regardless of whether they’re traveling on a road with a higher speed limit.

Visit the California DMV’s page for autonomous vehicle accident reports.